Deer lost

[nit wit]

I've lost two one here in Maine .45cal 500 grain bullet.Sun in my eyes blinded me and did not get the 2nd shot, found weeks later.
#2 Rhode Island, nice little fork horn 30 yards. .58 cal roundball right behind the shoulder.
Classic tail down, good placement, lungs. They have the thickest brush/bushes and 3 of us could not find it. A critter dragged it out months later.
These are the hunts that will haunt you forever. Very hard to walk away from a deer you've shot!
Nit Wit

 

[Dave K]

I will admit, I have lost deer. Since hunting for deer since about 1979, there have been a few never recovered. Some were seen months later, appearing to be healthy. One was found 2 weeks later.Some were never found dead or alive after even asking land owners what happened and I would gladly tag it no matter how old it is. I killed the deer and it is dead from my actions. I have found deer from other hunters, who swore they never touched a hair. I have tracked for some, who swear it was a perfect heart shot or a double lung shot, but proved it wasn't when found. You can feel pretty good about your shot, but regardless of what you think, you are never 100% certain, until you put your tag on it. So many things between good shooting and bad luck can take place. Personally, I have never been with a long time hunter, that has taken a number of deer, who hasn't had a some of each. That is good shooting, good luck and poor shooting and poor luck. I have even tracked a deer I shot to find another hunter bent over it field dressing it and threatened me for me thinking it was a deer I shot. Did I lose the deer?

 

[doulos]

I lost my first deer in over 17 years this past season with a bow. Having taken at least one deer every year for the past 37 years or so Ive lost my share. Most of the lost deer were when I was younger and more anxious. I seem to wait longer now for better shots but as last year shows I can still blow it sometimes.

 

[George T.]

I live in Texas and I started hunting deer in 1958. I live in a area that has allowed from 3 in 58 to 5 to be harvested each year. I have killed 9 deer with MLR's and 8 with bows and over a hundred with modern scope sighted rifles.

These are Texas Hill Country Deer that weigh 110 or less. I have lost 2. One I lost his trail in the dark only to find him two days later with a perfect rib cage shot. He went about 200 yards. The other was a shot at a trotting doe at 150 yards that blew a fist sized piece of liver out but we never found her. The fact that I took this shots haunts me years later.

I think that when shooting archery or MLR's I keep the ranges short and am much more choosy about the shots I take. The deer lost were all with a .270 Winchester and five on the MLR kills were with a 40 caliber.

If a person understands the limitations of his or her MLR there is no more likely hood of not finding their game. Geo. T.

 

[stinkyfeet]

Ok I admit it I have lost 2 deer one nice buck I recovered a week later, one I never found. it happens its a part of hunting and no matter how careful you are or the pickiness of shot placement eventually it happens. I felt like crap and looked for each deer for many days. My buddy hit one we recovered over a mile away. Im not perfect and have missed clean as well.

 

[Claude Mathis]

Ok I admit it I have lost 2 deer one nice buck I recovered a week later, one I never found. it happens its a part of hunting and no matter how careful you are or the pickiness of shot placement eventually it happens. I felt like crap and looked for each deer for many days. My buddy hit one we recovered over a mile away. Im not perfect and have missed clean as well.

Your honesty is worth more than all the criticisms others may make. :thumbsup:

 

[Dave K]

I will always remember a buck I shot that I could of sworn was a great shot. I searched all day, but when the deer left the woods and crossed the road, I could not pick up the trail again in the set aside field. Went back the next day and did a just plain look search, since I had nothing to follow. I told the land owner if you hear or see it,let me know and I will come down to tag it. After all, it was not the deers fault that I shot it. Two weeks later, the Ohio slug gun season came in. I got a call from the land owner early that day, that a hunter found the deer, tagged and took it home! When I looked over the gut pile, you could tell it was an old gut pile, but the hunter was happy. With this knowledge, I could somewhat back trail the deer and knew it was the one I hit. Not proud of it, but I guess you can say the deer didn't didn't go to waste? 2 weeks dead, I bet it was tender!

 

[matt denison]

"I have even tracked a deer I shot to find another hunter bent over it field dressing it and threatened me for me thinking it was a deer I shot. Did I lose the deer?"

I have a similar story. By the time I tracked it down someone else had a tag on it and had started the field dressing process. It was late, getting dark, I was dog tired from chasing up and down and around and around. I relented and said the H*ll with it, you can have it. Did I lose the deer? I didn't get to eat it so I felt like I lost it.

 

[AWsaddles]

That reminds me of another deer story that happened to me. I was walking up a over grown river bank a couple years ago when I jumped a buck that appeared to be of fairly decent size. He stopped for a split second and I took a shot that I was fairly confident was a good shot. The deer then ran into the river where he tried to make it to the other side but expired half way between the two banks. Being early fall the river was fairly deep and when he got into the current he started floating down river in a hurry. I ran along the bank trying to keep an eye on him and trying to shuck as many clothes as I could before I had to take the enivitable plunge. When I was finally down to just under shorts I stuck my phone under my hat and jumped into chest deep water and waded out to get him. I worked an hour in November cold in nothing but my underwear to get him up on the bank. That is when I realized he had also been shot in the back leg earlier in the day. I recovered my clothes and was getting dressed when I met my neighbor and his 11 year old grandson walking down the riverbank trying to track his grandsons first buck that he had hit but got away. I led them to the river bank where they identified it as the buck they shot that morning. The boy was so excited I didn't have the heart to tell him the whole story so I simply stated that his shot would have killed it I just saved him some tracking and finished it off. The way I see it is I got the enjoyment of one of the most exciting and memorable hunts ever, he got a really nice first deer and I got to hunt another day. They don't all end like that though. I did get to snap a couple pics with my phone though before I got him completely out of the water though. Enjoy

 

[stinkyfeet]

I have been in a similar situation but the buck was finished off and tagged by me and hanging in the garage. I walked up on it bedded down and it went maybe 5 yards and layed back down. I finished the buck off and waited for a few hours before dragging it out. About 4 hours later the neighbor guy stated his nephew shot a nice buck and they lost the trail the day before and it was headed towards our property and asked if they could look for it. I said sure but lets take a look at the one in the garage first. They agreed and identified it as the buck he shot. He was a young kid so I said take it he was going to die anyways I just finished him off. Sure I wasted a tag but the smile was worth it from the neighbors nephew. You never know he might have stopped hunting if I'd have been an a$$. You did the right thing and I am proud of ya.

 

[S.Kenton]

Your a good man! :hatsoff:

 

[roundball]

A few years ago during the rut I had a really big buck step out of his thicket into view in very poor, low, light...he was about 40-50 yards away, stepping & stopping a couple times, with his last stop in a narrow lane through the trees.
I was sitting down against a big pine, elbow braced down on my ribs steady as a bench rest, put the bead on his heart and squeezed the trigger...when the smoke cleared from the Flintlock he was out of sight but knew he had to be down, just didn't hear him crash.

Took about 10-15 minutes like I normally do to completely clean, dry, lube, and reload the Flintlock, then walked off towards the thicket to get him...didn’t see him in sight...and saw no hair or blood around where he stood...started making semi-circle searches back into the thicket to try and cut a blood trail, but nothing. Then spent a good hour in a serious grid search trying to strike a blood trail but still found nothing.

Went back and sat down at my tree, replayed the shot in good light then, and about half way to where he stood I saw a thumb size sapling broken / bent over right on the line of my shot...the ball had clipped that sapling and went lord knows where. Was sick I’d missed a terrific buck but relieved he was apparently all right and I might get another chance, but never saw him again.
Fast forward...scouting that area for a new / better ground blind location the following year, working through thick stuff on the left side of the big thicket about 50yds beyond where I grid searched the previous year...

 

[cynthialee]

I have only lost rabbits.

The only one I feel shame over was a snare I forgot I had out. I had gone out to collect my snares a couple weeks before I found the rabbit...He was a desiccated corpse by the time I found the snare. I had missed one of my snares and the rabbit suffered because of it.
That was the last time I put out snares with out a list of where I put them.

 

[hanshi]

In my basement den I have mounted a beautiful, heavy beamed 8pt rack. I found the buck dead and mostly eaten (coyotes) but the rack was untouched. Someone shot him and failed to recover him.

Some years ago my (big) dog was chewing on something in the front yard - I lived in the boonies. I glanced at it, annoyed because it appeared to be the carcass of a deer with a large ribcage visible. I went out to the dog and almost fell over. She was chewing on a HUGE (one side only) piece of deer rack. It was nearly thick as my wrist and had 7 good, scorable tines. It could have been an honest, symmetrical 14 pointer. But my dog only brought one side and couldn't be persuaded to show me where she found it. I've cut it up and used it for handles, measures and a dozen other things. I NEVER see live ones that size.

 

[crockett]

Well since we all have lost a deer or two- what do most of you feel about going and getting a hound with a nose if you can't find the deer? Seems okay to me.

 

[BrownBear]

First light the first day I hunted with a new 62 cal flinter. I'd been shooting it a lot for a couple of months and felt real confident with it. The patches of timber were dark enough I had trouble making out my sights when looking back into the timber, but could see them clearly when aiming toward the open areas along the edges.

Saw a good deer on the edge at about 50 yards, standing broadside and looking away from me. A "gimme" shot I was proud to take for a first kill with the new 62.

Boom! Smoke, thrashing deer on the ground, and I felt even better. Had the horn in my hand for a reload as the smoke cleared enough to see the deer laying there. Just got the measure filled and it hopped up and bailed off down the hill and out of sight.

Three hours of tracking later I ran completely out of blood spots and there were too many other deer tracks to sort. Fresh bear tracks had appeared in the mix, and I figured I wasn't the only one tracking that wounded deer.

Sick at heart I started the roughly 2 mile trek in the opposite direction back to my truck. About half way there I spotted another good deer at about 30 yards and popped it. DOA.

When I turned it for dressing I could see entrance and exit right where I had been aiming, down low behind the shoulder. But the heck of it is, the off side foreleg just a little forward of that path was broken with a lot of dried blood and and a groove cut in the brisket.

Same deer. My first shot had been about 4" low at 50 yards. I'll never duplicate the luck in walking him up a mile away in the opposite direction of where I lost him. Of course, the good luck didn't stop there, because he'd walked a mile closer to my truck before letting himself get shot again. :applause:

 

[Dave K]

Crocket, I have no reason not to use a dog, but check with your state laws. Some don't allow it, some do.

 

[Silex]

That is a quite interesting point. Why would dogs not be allowed - is there a fear of doing drives?

Over here every person renting a hunting block by law is required to have a dog/hound available for tracking. If you don't own one you can nominate a friend with dog. There are even nominated trackers in for several counties. It is considered good practice. There are even gentlemens agreements across properties to follow wounded game and track it down to get it. Of course the game belongs to the land owner on who's land it expired but usually they wave that right and give it to the one who shot it.

Silex

 

[FishDFly]

That is a quite interesting point. Why would dogs not be allowed - is there a fear of doing drives?

Yes and very much so.

Each county in Texas has specific laws for that county and the use of and lack of use for dogs. Most do not allow tracking dogs, some are changing.

Very touchy subject in Texas when it comes to dogs and deer. There is an S&S rule in some counties when it comes to dogs, shoot and shovel.

 

[Dave K]

Ohio didn't allow dogs to track a deer(dead or alive) for years! Now I think they allow a tracking dog for "lost" deer, if it remains on a leash. Ohio is a state that does not allow dogs to hunt any deer. So the fear for the state is that the dog would be used for poaching. I am not saying I agree,I just know I don't want to be fined or even thought I could be a poacher.